SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Genoa Ventures, the pioneering venture firm investing in the convergence of biology and technology, today announced the successful close of $84 million for Genoa Ventures Fund II. The new fund will continue Genoa’s investing focus on startups innovating in markets as diverse as research tools, diagnostics, Agri/Food Bio, and industrial bio. Genoa’s first fund proved this intersection can transform industries and achieve top-tier venture returns – as seen through portfolio company growth and acquisitions, including the acquisition of Intabio by SCIEX in 2021.
Genoa’s oversubscribed fund nearly tripled Fund I raised in 2018 while maintaining the early-stage focus and small incremental investing in Seed and Series A companies. The Genoa philosophy centers on strategic guidance and staged investing to ensure institutional best practices during the earliest stages of a company’s journey, while also promoting portfolio diversity and fund sizes that align with top-tier venture capital returns.
Until Genoa, most venture funds with life sciences expertise invested mainly in therapeutics companies, leaving a gap in the venture capital marketplace for startups that are bio-based but not therapeutics-focused. Jenny Rooke, Ph.D., Genoa’s Founder and Managing Director, believed there was an opportunity to invest in different kinds of companies, leveraging technological advances to solve big biological problems and the advancements of engineered biology to become powerful technologies themselves.
“Early in my career, I realized the potential of convergent product-based companies to create entirely new solutions that are bigger than the sum of their parts, with the potential to transform industries. I saw the limitations of traditional, siloed life science investing and firms’ hyperfocus on drug development companies. The venture community was missing transformative companies outside the traditional biotherapeutic and technology markets with solutions that didn’t fit into existing categories,” said Dr. Rooke.
“We are enormously grateful to our Limited Partners who understood our vision and have been on the journey with us since the beginning, and we welcome our new LPs who recognize the impact we can have together. Our LPs are true partners with Genoa throughout our portfolio companies’ journeys, with many co-investing with Genoa in later financing rounds, enabling Genoa Ventures to maintain our focus on early-stage, value-add investing.”
To date, the Genoa team has made nine portfolio investments from Fund II, including Aqtual, a cell-free DNA diagnostics platform; Stemson, personalized hair regeneration based on stem cell technology; Epitel, a first-in-class wireless, 24/7 EEG monitoring for seizures; SimBioSys, enabling informed clinical decision support for cancer patients and their doctors; Meiogenix, developing breeding technologies to address global food and industrial challenges; Redux, developing advanced animal health products; and Codetta, enabling highly multiplexed, quantitative multi-omic analysis of DNA, RNA, and protein.
In addition to Dr. Rooke, Genoa has nine other investment professionals all with advanced degrees in the sciences, including Vikram Chaudhery, Ph.D., who was recently promoted to partner, Bill Hyun, Ph.D., Negin Mokhtari, Ph.D., Dave Summa, Paco Cifuentes, Ph.D., Landon Merrill, Richard Kenny, Tony Day, Ph.D., and Paul Conley, Ph.D. Genoa also has an exclusive partnership with Hawkwood Biotech Partners, a bioindustrial scale-up consultancy, which provides unique insight and advisory services to Genoa and its portfolio companies.
To learn more about Genoa, please visit: www.genoavc.com
About Genoa Ventures
Genoa Ventures invests in early-stage companies working in the convergence of biology and technology to accelerate the pace of innovation, transform industries, and solve some of the most fundamental challenges to life. Genoa identifies opportunities early and focuses its investments and expertise to empower the next great category-defining companies. The Genoa team has a unique chimeric blend of experience from scientific research and discovery to company-building in the life sciences and technologies sectors. The team applies this diverse experience to provide expert guidance to its companies as they scale and grow. For more information, please follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, or online at www.genoavc.com.
